The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

Today is the last day that we spent in the Renaissance Parc 55. Our check out date was due at 1pm. Rebeca went to finish her last day of training and I went out to find something to eat. I ate at a small dinner around the corner from the hotel. It was this 50’s style diner. I figured it should have been okay. I sat down and ordered immediately, being that I was starving. I didn’t look at the menu, only told the server what I wanted. After I ate and went up to pay the bill, it was $20 for a couple of eggs and pancakes! Damn, man. I won’t be going there any time soon.

During my stay here I have yet to get used to the rapid and often changes in the weather. Again, we awoke to cool, foggy skies. It looked as if it might rain. The wind was strong on this part of town and we were chilly as we walked in search of some good Japanese food. Unfortunately, the one restaurant that I had in mind, I couldn’t find. Since we were short on time we ate at one across from the hotel, Hana Zen. This was a mistake. I have had much better Japanese food in Madison, Wisconsin. I thought that we would have been able to find good Japanese food in any part of town. This has made the 1st unsatisfactory eating experienced followed by a mediocre one yesterday. Perhaps tonight will be better.

Tonight was definitely better. Rebeca made plans to meet her cousin, Roger, this evening so I was on my own with my cousins. Kelley made reservations for us at the Bubble Lounge, located on Montgomery Street. It was a pretty lavish lounge with tall ceilings, big over-sized chairs and live music. The places claim to fame of course if Champaign. We arrived around 6pm for a couple of drinks and dinner.

Dinner consisted of shrimp cocktail, a couple of different quesadillas as well as a
salad. The salad got sent back but the quesadillas and shrimp cocktail were great. For desert was had a plate of chocolate truffles that were just outstanding. The night was still young so we decided to move on, towards the Financial District. Next stop, the Shanghai.

The Shanghai is located along a neat row of trendy bars and restaurants. It offered a cigar bar, which we ignored much to my chagrin, and preceded to the bar. This place also offers a full-service restaurant. The bartender here was pretty funny. He concocted one of his own brews for us for the first round. While sipping away on our
Cotton Candies, Kelley, Lauren and myself discussed our families, life, what we were doing and the chance of me moving out here. I finished the second round with another
chocolate martini, this time a clear one.

As it got close to midnight, we wrapped things up and they dropped me off at he hotel. Another well spent night here. I have really enjoyed reconnecting with my family here. It has reminded me of how much I miss having a sense of family. If things were able to work out and I was able to move out here it would be great. We’ll just have to see how things go.

We awoke today to another chilly, foggy morning, with the fog but not the chill burning off by 10:00 or so. Rebeca, of course, had her conference to attend which left me to my own devices again. I apparently strained my left ankle’s tendon some time during our trip. Perhaps yesterday while I was walking the steep hills of Chinatown. I revisited that area again today looking for fruit and vegetable markets but didn’t find any. I did see the gates of Chinatown though. Neat enough looking although I’d have thought that they stood 20 feet high or something. This town is so funny. Without my coat I would have frozen my butt off and with it I’m sweating like I was a 12-year old kid sewing Nike tennis shoes somewhere in Malaysia. I’m not complaining though. It’s great exercise. I may even drop a little bit more weight while I’m here.

My only major complaint of the trip so far has not been the trip itself but this damned laptop that I took with me from work. It’s one of the brand new Dells that we got in. It is supposed to be wi-fi ready but with out the wi-fi card, not much good, huh? So, here I am sitting in a Starbucks (yes, I know. The Dark Side of the Force…), trying to see if it really works when I realize that the wi-fi card is not actually installed. Kind of like everything else at Edgewood: Ass backwards. The whole idea of a laptop is to be mobile and portable. Well, what could me more portable than wireless Internet access? I mean, after all, Dell is shipping all of their machines wireless ready. I guess the last step in that installation is to go to Comp USA and buy a wi-fi card. Stupid stuff.

There are so many things that I could say about this fair city. Here’s one of them: You ever wonder how long you have to cross at a crosswalk? No, really. You ever think to yourself, “…hmm, it’s blinking that DON’T WALK signal. I had better wait ‘cause I just don’t know how long I’ve got…” Well here, the crosswalk signals have a timer on them. Yes, they blink, “…8, 7, 6…3, 2, 1 ­ time’s up!” What could be more ingenious than that? Hell for both driver and pedestrian alike. I mean, if you can’t see that time’s running out and you should stop, continue across and get your behind run over, who’s to blame but yourself? I would love this from a driver’s point of view. “…Officer, he saw he only had six seconds to cross and he just took his sweet old time. It wasn’t my fault that he bounced twice off the asphalt.” I will be bringing this to the Mayor’s attention at the next town hall meeting.

We had dinner this evening with a group from Rebeca’s training seminar. They’re from Phoenix, working together for the same company. I only remember two of their names: Ricky and Viviana. They’re all from a common Mexicano background.

We walked to the North Beach section to have some Italian food. We ate at Caffé Viva. The food was moderately priced but too salty for my taste. Most of the other women in the group were older except for Viviana. They didn’t talk much, only keeping to themselves. We made plans to get together after we rested for a bit. This resulted in us sitting at the hotel bar eating popcorn and drinking over-priced drinks. Tomorrow Rebeca meets her cousin so I think I’ll have the day to myself again.

Well, having just returned from my first solo outing I can say this about San Francisco so far: It’s a rough-ass city to walk in! Man, these hills out here are killer. If you’re looking for a place to get in shape and loose a few pounds, just spend a day or two walking around here. Man, I really got in a good work out. I walked down to the Embarcadero today and watched some construction. I had a quick bite and then moved on, walking back up through Chinatown. There’s just so much activity here. People are everywhere and are doing everything. Again, I could not help but to notice a large number of homeless here as well.

Chinatown seems like a place where I could spend a lot of time photographing. All of the shop signs are in Chinese as well as it is spoken on the street. This brings me to a quick side point. I think I have heard almost every language spoken by man here. Czech. Spanish. Japanese. Italian. Chinese. French. Arabic , as well as several others that I can only guess the origins. The interesting part is that it’s not spoken hastily, with embarrassment as it is back in Wisconsin. No, here, the immigrant or non-English speaking people converse openly, perhaps with unconscious pride, in their native tongues, not giving a damn if the people around them understand or not. It sounds so good, I’m almost tempted to just jump right in to conversations that I have no part in. Almost.

In the afternoon, after Rebeca’s seminar, we met up with my other cousins, Karen, her husband Max, and Kelley. It was so good to see them both. I hadn’t seen Karen, especially, in a long time. They both looked good. Karen’s husband, Max, is one cool man. He’s really nice, laid back and is easy to get along with.

We headed out to find some food and made our way over to the Mission District. Here’s a part of San Francisco I’d like to live in. I’d say it probably has the city’s largest concentration of Latinos but if one goes north on 24th above Mission Street then you’ll see where all of the yuppies have moved in, driving up rent. The ‘brown people’ are on the lower half of 24th. Lot’s of cool shops and stores and tons of bars, restaurants and especially, taquerias. We ate at a place featuring food from El Salvador. The food was good but heavy. We were all ready to fall asleep after we received the bill. Max is a native from the area here, in the Mission District itself. He took us for a quick tour back through town down along Market Street, passing a U. S. Mint. Another great evening spent here. I will take Max’s advice and head up to Bush & Grant to look for a small vegetable market in Chinatown tomorrow to photograph.

What a night! The bed was made of a concrete slab, I swear. Sleeping wasn’t that bad though. Rebeca needed it more than me. After rising early, setting up for a charitable race and then partaking in it, Rebeca was really floored. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was out.

This morning we awoke to a nice sunny day. The weather outside is quite crisp, with a nice, steady breeze to make it feel almost cool enough to want a jacket. We took two cups of coffee and a couple of crappy danishes for breakfast. I took a walk to see exactly where we were. Millbrae. A somewhat smallish airport town full of 24-hour espresso drive-thru’s and diners. I watched a couple of planes take off from the airport but this isn’t what we’re here for. It’s the city I want to see. So, we’ll clean up, pack up and make our way downtown via the BART to take a look at the real San Francisco.

We caught the BART going downtown. It was a quick easy ride to 5th & Market. We bought a couple of tickets for the wrong train initially but after being directed by a kindly old local we were on the right way. Now that we’re settled in, we’re going to take a stroll on the streets to see what’s out there. I’m hungry…

As we were walking out of the hotel, my cousin Lauren called. Turns out she lives just around the corner so she came and picked us up. She took us for a tour of this great city. We drove and drove, passing so many neighborhoods I’d be sure to get lost if I tried to duplicate it. I just love how things change here from one set of blocks to the other.

We started out on South of Market and drove by the new baseball stadium, Pacific Bell Park. It reminds me in a way of Detroit. You have the old Tiger Stadium and the new Comerica Park. After passing that we proceeded towards the waterfront. Man, this is where it just gets breath taking. San Francisco is by far the most picturesque city that I’ve ever seen. As we toured down this street you could see the Bay. There are moorings everywhere. Small and mid-sized ships alike were pulled up to dock. The Bay Bridge stretched out over the water, looking very striking in the mid-day sun. We passed the Financial District, going pier by pier.

There were people everywhere. Kids skateboarding. People walking with their families. Joggers. No matter where, there’s activity here in San Francisco. Eventually we made it to the Fisherman’s Warf area. It was really packed, with a throng of young kids just hanging out by what looked like the thousands. It had an amusement park feeling to it. We didn’t stop though. We continued on past a thick line of traffic and a few horse-drawn buggies.

After that we went through a couple of other areas, I believe that were described as the Marina Area. The houses here were just amazing. So unique. Nothing like I’ve ever seen. All facing the Bay. On a clear day I’m told one can view Alcatraz from there. Not cheap property, some houses approaching the million-dollar mark. Nice I guess if you can afford it. We passed on through these neighborhoods to come to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, the fog had set in so we couldn’t see anything. It appeared to come from nowhere, too. While this part of the city was covered in fog and mist, the other part was still sunny. We left the Bridge and proceeded for a drive through the Presidio.

The old military school looked like something from an old Hollywood film lot. It was abandoned, with no one in sight. There was no activity and from what Lauren said, it is no longer in use. An interesting place, filled with neat looking rows of houses. The non-boarding buildings looking like old school buildings. The other odd things here were these transplanted palm trees. I know we may be in California but palm trees are as native to California as the White man. But, we were getting hungry so we drove through and made our way back to town.

Just driving, anywhere in this city, is just such great fun. It’s like a maze or a labyrinth. It’s so twisted and turned around that you really almost need a guide to get yourself around. We drove back through the city to Chinatown, where we ate at Hunan’s. It was a good, mid-priced Chinese restaurant featuring the heavy, often greasy cuisine of that part of China. All in all, it was a great day. I had a chance to reconnect with my cousin and get a tour around a wonderful city. The only thing left on our minds now is, “When do we want to move out here?”

I have been looking forward to this trip for more than a month now. When Rebeca told me she was going to be taking a trip to San Francisco in July and that she wanted to know if I’d like to go with her, I leapt at the chance. We spent days talking about what it’d be like; what we’d do. I contacted my cousins who live there and asked if we could stay with them for a few days. They answered a very excited yes and now we’re finally here. I must say that it’s been a trip so far.

We spent most of today running around, trying to find time to tie up loose ends as well as pack. Yes, we haven’t packed yet! This seems just about right though. It can’t really be all that tricky to stick a bunch of clothes in a couple of suitcases. Rebeca had a “last minute bike ride/fundraiser to do”. I stopped by to help out a little as well. After a trip to Target to stock up it was 5:00. With a short good-bye session with Carlos-Mario, we were on our way to JW’s for a lift to the airport.

Much thanks to JW for the ride to the Madison Metro Airport. And, as promised, I will check my mileage on the Benz, man! 30 quick minutes and we were there. 30 quick minutes and the terror set in. God!, I hate flying. I really, really hate it. Anyway, check in went pretty smooth and we just had about a one-hour wait for our flight.

Our flight showed up on time and sooner than I had hoped we were in the air. We flew Northwest. The plane out of Madison was a small one. I could feel every bump and jiggle that the craft made. I felt like I was on some wicked amusement park ride, being bounced around. My palms were sweaty and I felt like I was on pins. After a short while I did come accoustmed to it. The flight was short and we were on the ground in Minneapolis again.

The airport in Minneapolis was fairly large. There were a lot of travelers but we only had a one-hour layover. By the time we freshened up a little and checked in, it was time to go again. Boarding this time took a lot longer. There were a lot more people. A lot more stupid people, too. Idiots trying to carry on bags as large as a refrigerator. This of course prolonged the boarding process but eventually everyone got on and again, we were off. This time around, I didn’t mind the take-off process. I actually enjoyed it. The sun set from above the clouds was truly amazing; my first seeing one. No film could capture such a thing. I really and truly saw something great today.

This flight was a little rough this time around. The seat was made for a short 8-year old. The man next to me kept having leg craps. He would get up and dance around, rubbing his legs. Rebeca seemed to just nod off as soon as the plane was up in the air. Three and a half hours later we were making our decent. The view of San Francisco from above at nighttime was just beautiful. The Bay Area lit up looked just amazing. We landed safely and after a short look around, we grabbed a ride to the Travelodge hotel from Martín. I think he was Mexican. He was friendly and helped us with our bags. Anyway, it’s late; we’re tired and excited for our first full day in San Francisco tomorrow.